Music festivals try to weather hard times and the Olympics effect

Kiss were to perform at the Sonisphere festival. Photograph: Beth Gwinn/Redferns

Festival organisers are blaming a combination of bad weather, the Olympics, the economy and the absence of Glastonbury this year for a summer of poor ticket sales and cancelled events.

Festival Republic, the company behind this weekend's Reading and Leeds festivals, was forced earlier this year to cancel the Big Chill in Herefordshire for the first time in its 18-year history. Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, cited a lack of "artist availability" due to the event clashing with the Olympics as the main reason behind the decision.

He believes the slow pace of ticket sales for festivals in general is due to problems with the economy: "Most people are on limited budgets at the moment – people have less money to spend – but I don't think it's a matter of the amount of festivalgoers diminishing; it's just that a few years ago many people would easily go to two or three festivals throughout the summer, and those same festivalgoers have reduced the amount of festivals they go to now."

While this weekend's Reading festival – where Kasabian and the Foo Fighters top the bill – has sold out, its mirror event in Leeds has not. Benn added that while this year had been tough, "overall tickets sales for Reading and Leeds increased by around 1%".

Other festivals blighted by cancellations and closures include the 2012 Sonisphere festival, the travelling European festival which was due to make its debut at Knebworth and was to feature Kiss, Queen and Faith No More. More recently, London's Bloc festival was closed over safety concerns, while the Hop Farm festival, promoted by industry veteran Vince Power, issued a profit warning at the start of the month after it failed to generate enough ticket sales.

According to a recent report, Destination: Music, by industry trade body UK Music, the festival sector now contributes £864m to the UK economy, with more than 500 commercial music festivals taking place nationwide.

Simon Taffe, founder of End of the Road, a boutique festival in Dorset taking place next weekend, with Patti Smith and Blur's Graham Coxon among the main acts, blames slower ticket sales on the "terrible early summer weather and the Glastonbury effect".

He said: "There's more publicity around festivals when Glastonbury is on – it lodges in people's consciousness in a way that no other festival in the UK does, which in turn helps ticket sales for other festivals."

While tickets have sold more slowly than previous years – End of the Road has sold out months in advance in the past – Taffe also believes that the Glastonbury break inspires would-be festival organisers to give it a go.

"You see a lot of people jump at the chance to try and set up their own festivals due to the so-called 'gap in the market', which clearly doesn't exist. I've seen quite a few new festivals start this year, but I've also seen a lot that never happened. I'm as guilty of it as anyone else: we started seven years ago in a year that Glastonbury was 'on holiday'."

Both Benn and Taffe predict that 2013 will see a revitalisation of the festival market. "You can't underestimate the fact that a million Olympic tickets were sold this year, and I'd like to think that at least 10% of those ticket buyers will be heading to festivals again next year," Benn said.

Taffe added: "There are quite a few festivals that are now out of the game, so it will be interesting to see what happens next year. A festival's survival is ultimately based in clever ideas – it's those doing something different that will thrive."